Survival following resection of pancreatic endocrine tumors: importance of R-status and the WHO and TNM classification systems.

1Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Rikshospitalet University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. ewa.pomianowska@rikshospitalet.no

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

The aim of this study was to delineate the clinical outcomes and pathological characteristics of surgically resected endocrine tumors of the pancreas and to determine the importance of the World Health Organization (WHO) and tumor-node metastasis (TNM) classifications, resection status, and Ki-67 expression for long-term survival.

PATIENTS AND METHODS:

RESULTS:

Forty-one patients (59%) had non-functional tumors, 28 (41%) patients had functional tumors. Thirty-seven (54%) tumors were classified as WHO group 1 and the remaining 32 as WHO group 2. There were no poorly differentiated endocrine carcinomas. The overall R0-resection rate was 68%. Patients in whom all gross tumor was resected (R0/R1) had significantly better survival compared to patients with macroscopic residual disease (R2) (p < 0.001). There was no difference in survival between patients with R0 and R1 resections. Both the WHO (p < 0.001) and the TNM (p < 0.001) classifications significantly predicted five and 10-year survival after resection of the primary tumor. Survival analysis revealed significantly better outcome for patients with tumors with Ki-67 index < 2% (p = 0.003).